BILLINGS, Mt. (RFD-TV) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its new plan to fortify the American beef industry this week, outlining strategies to strengthen the supply chain, expand local processing, and support new and beginning ranchers.
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard joined us on Friday’s Market Day Report to share his perspective and outline how this plan could impact producers.
In his interview with RFD-TV News, Bullard discussed the long-standing issue of market concentration, noting that four primary packers continue to control most of the U.S. beef market.
“Look, consumer prices have been increasing while cattle prices were decreasing — an inverse relationship,” Bullard said. “This meant the marketplace was exploiting producers on one end and consumers on the other. And then in 2019, we filed an antitrust case against the four largest beef packers, alleging unlawful collusion. After that time is when we saw cattle prices trying to catch up with beef prices, but retail beef prices have increased further, much more, and faster than have cattle prices.”
Bullard also weighed in on the relationship between consumer prices and rancher profits, questioning whether current retail prices accurately reflect the costs that producers bear.
“Cattle prices have only recently responded to this incredibly tight supply situation that was brought about because we decimated our U.S. herd by excessive imports and lack of antitrust enforcement,” he explained. “We’ve allowed the packers to source beef from around the world. We’ve had record imports while beef prices were high—and the fact is, cattle producers do not control retail beef prices. It’s the meat packers and the retailers that control them, and they benefit from more imports. And the reason they do is because, if they can increase the supply, they can decrease the demand for domestic cattle, and they can lower the price of cattle and protect themselves from any losses in margins.”
He also discussed the debate over potential beef imports from Argentina, the Trump Administration’s consideration of that option, and the need to prioritize domestic production.
“Even though Argentina is not going to have, on its own, a big impact — we already import record volumes of beef that are depressing our cattle industry — and so adding Argentina to it is a problem, but it isn’t incompatible,” he said. “We need to reduce overall imports by 1.5 billion pounds. The President can increase imports from Argentina but decrease imports from these other countries, say from Brazil, and reduce their tariff-rate quotas and have the space necessary to rebuild.”
Bullard shared his thoughts on whether the USDA’s proposed measures adequately address the challenges ranchers are facing, including a strong need for improved fair-market practices and the creation of more supportive opportunities for young ranchers and small processors. He said the USDA’s plan can only go so far because the department’s powers are somewhat limited, explaining that some actions are under the purview of Congress, the President, and other departments.
“The proposal we were hearing about increasing imports to the United States is absolutely the wrong direction,” he said. “We need to rebuild the cattle herd, and in order to do that, we have to have a price point that incentivizes rebuilding and expansion. We’re there now. But if actions are taken to reduce the demand for domestic cattle, we’ll be right back where we’ve been — and that is a shrinking industry losing hundreds of thousands of cattle producers, continuing to shrink our domestic cattle herd. This is not what we need to do.”
He also highlighted specific steps that America’s independent ranchers would like to see taken to support a robust beef industry, as well as what the U.S. Trade Office should do to reverse “failed” trade policies, including curtailing beef imports and enacting tariff-rate quotas on the overall beef supply.
“We need to impose tariffs like the President has done, and we need more of them; and we need to further establish limits on these excessive volumes of imports to give our industry the space it needs to actually rebuild and expand — and that’s where the USDA plan comes along. They want to increase grazing opportunities on federally managed land. That will increase America’s capacity to grow the herd and meet our national security needs, which is to become self-sufficient in the production of beef, which is an extremely important food staple in America.”
Looking ahead, Bullard emphasized the importance of rebuilding the national cattle herd, supporting young and beginning ranchers through insurance subsidies, and ensuring the USDA effectively implements new grazing agreements that could benefit small operations.
“That’s not an issue we’re working on, but we recognize that we must provide opportunities because we are not attracting new entrants in this industry,” Bullard said. “We’ve lost over 106,000 producers just in the five-year time period between 2017 and 2022, so we don’t criticize the Secretary for taking those steps. We hope it’s helpful, but the most important thing we can do is reestablish a competitive market for our U.S. cattle producers and for consumers. That’s how they receive fair and equitable prices. It’s in a competitive market where competitive forces and not monopolistic control and artificial imports are controlling the price of both beef and cattle.”
